Cheesecake Stuffed Red Velvet Cookies

Delicious red velvet cookies with a cheesecake stuffed centre

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword Cookies

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 13

Total Time 43

Servings

Calories 206kcal

Author thebakingexplorer

Ingredients

For the cheesecake filling

85 g Cream cheese I used Philadelphia
25 g Icing sugar sieved
¼ tsp Vanilla extract

For the cookies

125 g Butter softened, unsalted
200 g Caster sugar also known as superfine sugar
1 Egg large
1 tsp Vanilla extract
200 g Plain flour
1 tsp Baking powder
1 tbsp Cocoa powder
Red food colouring I used Sugarflair Red Extra

To decorate (optional)

50 g White chocolate melted, optional

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Put the cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla extract into a mixing bowl and mix together until smooth using a spatula or a spoon. Set aside
Ideally using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, mix the butter and sugar together for a few minutes
Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix in
Add the plain flour, baking powder, cocoa powder and red food colouring. Mix together, add more red food colouring if needed to reach the desired shade
Divide the dough into 14 portions, I weighed the dough and used 50g per cookie
Roll each portion into a ball using the palms of your hands, then flatten the dough out into a disc in the palm of your hand
Place a teaspoon of the cream cheese mixture into the centre of the flattened out piece of dough
Fold the dough around the cream cheese filling and pinch the dough together to seal the cream cheese inside the dough. Roll it back into a ball shape
Place the ball of cheesecake filled dough onto a lined baking tray, do the same with all of the dough until it is used up. Then put all of them into the freezer for 30 minutes
Meanwhile, pre-heat your oven to 180C Fan/400F/Gas Mark 6
After the 30 minutes is up and your oven is pre-heated, place the frozen dough balls onto lined baking trays, leaving space (at least 2") between them to spread. If you don't have enough baking trays, keep the dough in the freezer and bake the cookies in batches
Bake for 13 minutes, remove from the oven and leave to cool for at least 10 minutes on the baking trays before moving to a cooling rack
Place the cookies onto some baking paper, and drizzle with the melted white chocolate. Leave to set
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge and eat within 3 days

Video

Notes

Make sure all your ingredients (particularly the butter and eggs) are at room temperature before you start baking. The cream cheese can be used straight from the fridge.
I prefer to use unsalted butter for this recipe, but you can also use a baking spread.
You will need to use a professional grade food colouring to get the same shade of red that you can see in my photos. Brands I recommend and use often are Pro Gel and Sugarflair (Red Extra shade). Colour Mill and Americolor are other good quality brands.
I prefer to use Philadelphia full fat cream cheese for the filling as it gives me the best results.
For the best flavour, use a vanilla extract and not an essence.
Although I provide cup measurements, I highly recommend weighing your ingredients out using digital kitchen scales. It is the most accurate way to measure ingredients and will ensure the best results. Digital scales are very low cost and can be purchased for around £12 ($16.50).
For teaspoon (tsp) and tablespoon (tbsp) measurements, please use measuring spoons and not the type of spoons you eat with. Again this will ensure accuracy and provide the best results.

Nutrition